I stumbled upon this article in the Boston Globe a couple days before Christmas but had too many holiday-related family obligations to really get into it until now. The point of the rather lengthy article is to go through the reasons Romney lost the election. Some of the reasons, of course, are familiar as we at C4P have been making the same points for the past four years: Romney is a liberal and can’t fluently espouse conservative ideas, he can’t use Obamacare to his advantage since he basically invented it, he can’t connect with ordinary people, he’s about as charismatic as a rusty lamp post, he’d be the perfect foil for Obama’s class warfare campaign, etc., etc., etc. In short, by nominating him, the GOP was committing political hara-kiri. Mr. L provides a great synopsis of the article below. But before I get to that, I want to highlight one nugget in the piece that caused me to laugh out loud:

More than being reticent, Romney was at first far from sold on a second presidential run. Haunted by his 2008 loss, he initially told his family he would not do it. While candidates often try to portray themselves as reluctant, Tagg insisted his father’s stance was genuine.

“He wanted to be president less than anyone I’ve met in my life. He had no desire to . . . run,” said Tagg, who worked with his mother, Ann, to persuade his father to seek the presidency. “If he could have found someone else to take his place . . . he would have been ecstatic to step aside. He is a very private person who loves his family deeply and wants to be with them, but he has deep faith in God and he loves his country, but he doesn’t love the attention.”

Yes, you read that correctly. According to his son, the same guy who’s been running for president since at least 2002 and who spent hundreds of millions of dollars over the past four years undermining and outright destroying any Republican who posed a threat to his nomination "had no desire to run" and "would have been ecstatic to step aside" for someone else.

Natch.

While you attempt to wrap your brain around that chestnut, enjoy Mr. L’s commentary on the above quoted article.

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A prime example of the unfortunate adage that, if somebody is willing to say it, some news outlet will print it.

I would say "Tagg, you’re NOT it." But, a better one might be, "Tagg, you’re full of IT."

I have an exit question for Tagg. If Mitt didn’t want to be President, what exactly was he doing?

lanahi

Yeah, it’s be nice to know why he ran then! It isn’t like there wasn’t anyone else!

What baloney!

socon

A bunch of baloney.

Tagg should be quiet and go away now, he’s embarrassing his family.

mark1955

Actually Tagg should keep talking. What he was really revealing (Unitenionally ) was MITTEN’S was a willing Dupe and was deliberately taking a "Dive" for the elites. They can’t be too Happy that he opened his mouth and revealed all of this,lest us Hoi-Poloi might get the idea that reform is useless through the repub party and we might just have to start a new Third Party that is receptive to Constitutional Conservatives.

socon

Tagg’s trying to perform clean-up on his father’s humiliating campaign.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

socon

He was getting ready to be "shellshocked" at 11:00 PM election night.

friskyness

The GOPe just wanted to stop Sarah…….they didn’t care if Obama won…………….

socon

I agree. They’re two sides of the same coin.

smbren

I don’t necessarily think this is a big deal. I think people are called to serve, they take the call if they have the backbone to do it. You should seek the presidency for the betterment of the country, to make a difference, and not for personal gain. You only want that position if you want the power. But, it is all irrelevant now because we will never know what could have been.

IndieDogg

I doubt that Mitt was called. I don’t know anyone who called him.

It’s more like the Hollywood producer who has himself paged in a restaurant so people will think somebody actually wants to talk to them.

socon

lol

socon

The problem is I didn’t see Romney show much of that "backbone" in the general election.

I guess he used it all up on Newt and Sarah. Thanks for that, Myth.

smbren

You need to let it go. The election is over, Mitt lost. He was never my ideal candidate. Sarah does not seem to be bothered by it at all. If she was she certainly did not say it. She spends her time looking beyond, for the long term. She certainly does not spend her time talking about how she was treated badly by the ‘boys’.

socon

Do you tell RINO Romney apologists they "need to let it go?" If not, why not?

I will keep reminding gullible Republicans that Mitt"s candidacy was a con job from day one. I don’t want to repeat the Mitt disaster in 2016.

palin45potus

Sorry Charlie Brown!!

The DC smarties yanked away the football again and you fell flat on yer keister…again!

And they just know that you’ll try again in 2016, when they pick the candidate they’ll allow to go up against Hillary.

(Remember that there are trillions of dollars depending on the USA continuing in the direction that it’s presently on, and if you think that those who fund these billion dollar campaigns are gonna meekly allow some reformer from Alaska and her supporters to interrupt that flow of dollars without a fight, then you need to review the past 2 years. Mitt Romney was strong-armed into this race because the GOP had to stop the TEA Party cold, and rallying around Mitt was the most practical way to do so short of blatantly supporting Obama.)

socon

I just got sick and tired of being kicked in the keister by my own side. Very unpleasant.

ineden

You are an idiot. Get a job instead of replying to every single comment on every single damn page. I can see you now..sitting around at your computer that the money Welfare (i.e., us tax-paying, hard working Americans) bought you. You are not funny, you are not clever…you are an anti-government schizophrenic with no job , no hope, and apparently nothing else to do and with nobody to talk to. I expect a sacastic, feeble attempt to one-up me in a reply…save the energy in your fingertips for feeding yourself some more government cheese, and replying to 50000 other entries on this and all the other websites. That is all.

socon

Ew. What a nauseating Romney butt-boy sychophant. Time to toss your very worn-out Romneybot knee-pads. lol

You don’t like my posts because I see right through traitors like you. Tough. Not only will you learn to accept my opinion, you will learn to like it.

socon

Thanks to Romney for his useless vanity presidential run.

Romney is an ego-maniacal piece of sh!t like his old man.

Ann’s a spoiled snot. Couldn’t stand her either.

goldenprez

Step right up … come and get it … get it while it’s hot … Oceanfront Property In Nevada!

Anyone who believes this "Romney didn’t want to be President" poppycock, is in need of mental health attention. Yes, it fits right into the meme about Romney "throwing" the election. What it doesn’t fit into is that the GOP establishment is arrogant, incompetent, and just plain stupid.

"It it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck … it is a duck!"

Yeah, sure, Tagg, your dad did us all "a favor" by running for President. Because he is such a great "patriot." I absolutely believe it had nothing to do with a "quest for power." Considering Romney was running for President since 2002, I absolutely believe he didn’t want to be President. It is obvious, to me, that someone who doesn’t want to be President would pursue the nomination with dogged determination for 10 years!

Just another GOP establishment excuse.

Jeb Bush is up next for the GOP establishment. And we all know he doesn’t want to be President either. However, he will heave a deep sigh and pursue the nomination, because after all, there is "no one else." So, like Romney, he will accept the "burden." I am flabbergasted at the depth of his "patriotism." So ready to step forward and accept the responsibility.

So ready to step forward and raise and spend hundreds of millions of dollars to destroy all of those other "no one elses."

Why did Romney lose? Because like all those other Republicans, he was an empty suit liberal. Period. End of paragraph. End of story.

Throw them all out! The status quo must go!

Believe none of what you hear, and only half of what you see.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

Barracudas Maximus.

MaMcGriz

I’ve read and seen more than enough of this man.

Onward.

Please.

socon

His kid, Tagg, too. Ugh.

Mr.L

Of Romney? Yes, I agree. And why the hell people still come to this site and act as an apologist for him is beyond me. He lost. It’s in the past. No more Romneys, no more Bushes or candidates like them. Enough already.

section9

Sorry, Mr. L, but there is way too much consultant money to be made in a Bush 2016 Campaign to allow someone like Palin to run uncontested for the GOP nomination. One of the reasons I believe that Marco is being primped now is that the Bushies think Palin might go for it this time and want to use Marco to bleed Palin from the right, just as Michelle and Perry were supposed to do (Santorum, as well-you’d be surprised how many Santorum loyalists there are out there).

To win, Palin will have to go completely grass roots and rely on numbers to overwhelm money. Her opponents will have it all unfortunately.

Mr.L

I don’t know exactly what the point is you are trying to make with that comment. No candidate who runs goes uncontested. Palin has never ran in a race where she wasn’t challenged by more than another person. More than 1/2 the country still do not know who Marco Rubio is. Santorum loyalists? I am surprised. I haven’t met any.
As we’ve seen with the primaries in 2012, Romney had all the money and could not get above 30% in the polls until he nuked the entire GOP field. Santorum, a totally fraudulent republican/conservative, gave Romney a run for his money in the midwest with very little money. This is was after he destroyed Gingrich in Florida with attack ads. Santorum, a loyal Bush bot, I believe was most likely working with Romney because Romney never really attacked Santorum hard in the primaries.

section9

The point I’d like to think you were making was that the rank and file have had enough with the Establishment. However, while we might have had enough with the Establishment, they haven’t had enough of us. I fully expect another Romney style firebombing campaign from the Bush family against whomever the actual conservative in the race happens to be, especially if it’s Palin.

Marco was always a Bush client. That’s how he became Speaker of the Florida House. That’s how he became Senator.

I’ve seen Santorum people on Facebook, but I suspect you may be right. The support for Rick may be a mile wide and an inch deep. Were Palin to enter a race, Rick’s support would have to be kept alive by the Bush crowd, as I suspect it was during the ’12 cycle.

The general point I’m making is the inevitability of the Establishment attempting to maintain control of the Party using the same tropes, the same tactics, and the same garbage campaigns against conservative Reaganites like Palin, Scott, West and other people who actually see the danger coming down the tracks. The dirty secret is that the GOP is quite willing to settle for the scraps off the table of left wing fascism (which I believe is where we are headed) in exchange for the crumbs off the table that the Left hands them: a little power now and again.

socon

I don’t trust Col. West anymore.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Suki-Pero/100001668382968 Suki Pero

There you have it. Romney cared enough about being president to fight like a dog keeping Palin, Gingrich, Santorum, and all those other not liberal enough candidates from winning but didn’t care enough to keep his like-minded ObamaRomney care pal from winning. The Republicans own this loss, not conservatives and obviously they are darn proud of it. Conservatives and Tea Partiers were given the middle finger twice – first w/ Romney’s nomination, 2nd with this article.

Pete Petretich

OPEN QUESTION: Did the Bush Clan push Romney to run, knowing full well that he would probably lose, simply because they want Jeb to be President before Mama Bush dies?

I believe that they did…

$8196935

There is no documentation to that guessing thought .

Pete Petretich

The notorious Bush Clan seldom leaves documentation behind of their schemes to manipulate the GOP. For instance, they have been waging political warfare on Sarah Palin since before the 2008 election, but this is difficult to "prove" and the Legacy Media ignores the story. The Bushie talking points cover the nation and fill the brains of countless GOP careerists.

The only reason we little people are burdened by the Obama Era at all is because of the dynastic plans of the Bush Clan! They treat the USA as their family country club…

Mr.L

Yes. Romney openly disclosed to the press in 2011 that, had Jeb Bush ran in
that cycle, he would not have. Everyone who knows that family in Texas
knows that Mrs. Bush did not want W to run in 2000 she thought it was Jeb’s turn.

Pete Petretich

Who gives a flying f### what Barbara Bush wants? The only reason we live with Obamacare etc. is due to her family schemes to dominate the GOP!

16 trillion dollars, 17 trillion dollars, 18 trillion dollars…

Freempg

Romney was currying favor with the Bush clan for their endorsement. End of story. Why would you present the argument based on the dubious premise Romney actually meant what he said about Jeb Bush and not expect some blowback? Romney hasn’t uttered a word not to his own advantage out of either side of his mouth for the length of his political career. Somehow in the galaxy of his two-faced, flip-flopping utterances you hang your hat on this one?

Tagg Romney made the comment about Mitt not wanting to run in 2006. Romney blew nearly 40 million of his own money losing to the feckless McCain in 2008. He was back in it to recoup his loss.

Independantminded

While I could only handle 6 minutes of him talking in circles I believe he buys into this theroy that Mitt didn’t want to be president? Mr L posted the same article here a couple of days ago and when questioned why Romney ran such an attack dog primary if he didn’t want to be president he wouldn’t answer and insulted the questioners. I know he has said nice things about Sarah in the past but I for one thinks he is a complete Bozo

goldenprez

Indie … A little tough on Mr. L, there … lol

Even if he buys/bought into the "Romney threw the election" meme, no matter what the form ("Romney didn’t want to be President," et al), Mr. L is certainly entitled to state his opinion. Just as we are entitled to disagree with him, without calling him names.

As I recall, Mrs. Palin endorsed John McCain for the Senate. Although I disagreed with her, as did many of her supporters, we didn’t think that qualified her as a "bozo."

Mr. L doesn’t need my help in defending himself, if he so chooses, but he has been in the forefront of the grassroots constitutional conservative movement. He has never stumped for the GOP establishment, and has been one of the loudest voices in calling them out for their arrogance and stupidity.

He has been one of those most open to a "third party" movement. And he has not just "said nice things" about Mrs. Palin, but has been an unconditional supporter of hers. He has gone out of his way to defend her on every occasion when she was under attack, from both the left and the GOP establishment.

No one is right 100% of the time. Not Mrs. Palin, not me, and not you.

I don’t understand your vitriolic and visceral response to Mr. L, but allow me to quote an old adage I have found useful. "Courtesy is not too good for anyone, and no one is too good for courtesy."

Throw them all out! The status quo must go!

Believe none of what you hear, and only half of what you see.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

Barracudas Maximus.

Mr.L

thanks Gprez. i really appreciate that comment.

goldenprez

Mr. L … I calls ‘em as I sees ‘em.

I may sometimes be wrong, but I’m always "right."

Throw them all out! The status quo must go!

Believe none of what you hear, and only half of what you see.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

Barracudas Maximus.

Mr.L

I replied to the insults hurled at me. go back and check the post you ditz. parakeet, when you get an original thought of your own & not someone else acting as an apologist for Romney page me.

http://twitter.com/BooBooBear4U2 BooBooBear4U2

Well, if everything is true, then the only reason for Romney to run, was to run interference against conservatives (Teaparty) candidates. Meaning, To prevent any conservatives gaining elected office after the 2010 Blowout where Republicans (Teapartiers) gain elected majority in Congress. Which means further, that there is a conserted effort both liberal’s and RINO’s are preventing traditional Conservative American values to prevail. Our enemies are liberal media (state own propagandist), George Soros, UAW, Teacher’s Union, Teamsters, Police and Fire Dept Unions, Federal Employees Unions, liberal PACS and Foreign Contributionist. There is a political war on Americans. We must realize this and know the demographics of our enemy. And how and where they are recruiting more liberals. That answer is in our schools and academia. We must resist tryanny and be vilgilant.

goldenprez

RagingBear … You left out two very important enemies.

The Republican Party, and the so-called right wing establishment media.

They most certainly are supporting a concerted effort to keep constitutional conservatives from acquiring any political clout. And they have been doing so for decades. Now it is out in the open.

Throw them all out! The status quo must go!

Believe none of what you hear, and only half of what you see.

Illegitimi non caborundum.

Barracudas Maximus.

$7566967

This is an old story, but I personally believe it was disseminated to cover the a** of the GOP Establishment.

By portraying Romney as a reluctant candidate, it makes Romney seem like a sympathetic figure. He "ran" because he had no choice. The Republicans wanted him to run. The American people wanted him to run. Therefore, being duty bound, he chose to run even though he didn’t want to.

This is total crap. He’s been running since 2006. He lost because he ran a pointless, lackluster campaign that avoided as many issues as possible. He lost because he allowed Obama to decide the rules of engagement, and failed to counter ANY of his accusations during last summer. He failed because he represents everyone wrong with the GOP Establishment.

Funny, Romney sure had a lot of zeal and energy when tearing down Santorum, Gingrich, and even Ron Paul.

Romney is worthless and pathetic. Had Sarah – or any REAL conservative run – Obama would have lost by 20 points.

Independantminded

I couldn’t agree more. I can’t believe that those who watched his scortched earth campaign against Newt etc. in the primaries can believe he didn’t want to be president. Romney apologists like this because it explains why he lost instead of blaming the most inept campaign in the history of presidential elections. To those who choose swallow this load of bs power to you but I bet you havea really bad taste in your mouth. Totally sick of this subject but at least it brought to the light of day who were the true Romney apologists.

Leroy Whitby

I think Romney was running for President when he ran and lost for Senate (in the 90′s?) and for Governor. He’s been running since he entered politics. Ridiculous story.

Jthom26837

I knew it!! I’m not supprised one bit. The fix was on from the get go. What a disgrace!!!

SARAH PALIN ROCKS!!! The PALIN FAMILY ROCKS!!!

WE PALINISTAS ROCK!!! GOD BLESS THE USA!!!

Jon Kelly

NICE GOING GUYS. NOW WE HAVE POSTED COMMENTS THAT PROVE THAT SOME OF US CAN BE AS STUPID AS THE LSM ARE ABOUT GOVERNOR PALIN. Romney is many things but he is a decent man of accomplishment. As a loyal Palinista — the comments to this posting are downright tasteless and embarrassing Come on, we’re better than this.

socon

Speak for yourself. I’m embarrased that there are still so many apologists for Romney.

nothing being said here about mttens that isn’t true. if you don’t like our comments then dont let the door hit you on the way out. we have a right to voice our opinions on whomever does not stand up for our conservative values. mitt romney never did. actions do speak louder than words – his actions dissed those who support tea party and sarah palin.

n4cerinc

If he had no desire to run for President, he has a funny way of showing it. Just ask every Primary opponent that came near. But I will hand him this; Ann Romney wanted the Presidency more than he did. It was their turn!!!!

Mr.L

yep. that’s the sick GOP hoary tradition– the next in line gets it. Palin ran for vice president she should’ve been the next in line.

socon

They didn’t even let her come to the convention! Disgraceful.

Stupid, clueless and classless.

Mr.L

Thanks for the shout out Doug. Frankly, I cannot understand some of the Romney apologists who continue to make excuses for Romney’s poor campaign. I had a comment to me recently where this person said that they can’t figure out why Romney ran if he didn’t want to be president. that it’s such long and expensive process and that seemed unbelievable. Well, my thinking is the GOP establishment did not want ANY tea party more conservative candidate than Romney to rise this go around. they do not want their little corner of the market threatened and they’d rather roll the dice w/ Romney as a nominee which would explain why Romney dumped everything in the kitchen sink at any threat to his chances of winning the? nomination. if Romney won, they’d be ok with that. simply because Romney and his administration would most likely be easily controlled. He was taking advice from establishment figure heads like Kissinger and James Baker. He also had a few people in his campaign hierarchy who are involved with the radical envrionmental Pigou Club–google that and when you learn about those folks you will see that their views on energy are no different than Obama. so it appears that the establishment saw Mitt as a get along go along or one of them. I know a lot of people say "why would he go through all that money" if he had no intention to win. well first, I don’t believe that he didn’t have an intention to win. but I do believe that Mitt and his campaign were not playing to win. there’s a big difference. most of the money he spent was not his own and any money of his own that he did spend was a piss in the pot compared to the wealth he has. so he prob ran w/ the attitude of "hey let’s give it a try & if we win that’ll be great but if we dont well at least we tried" instead of just playing to win like he did in the primaries. if you’re going into a campaign for president of the united states, you have the mindset that it’s all or nothing and that winning is everything. mitt romney never gave me the impression that was what he was all about.

Sue Lynn

Mrl Tavern nails it again!!!!!

gahanson

I always figured that all Romney ran for is to be able to say got something his father couldn’t, the nomination. He’d run, lose, then go home back to his normal life, and write a book, content with the knowledge that he’d have one tiny paragraph in the history books. The gop "leadership" knew this, and they went along, confortable with the knowledge that they didn’t deny the first black president reelection.

wodiej

Wow Doug, another chance to criticize Romney. You must be happy.

We all knew Romney was not a Jesus Christ conservative. If we use the criteria for what many conservatives think a liberal is, Jesus actually had many of those same qualities. You know-tolerance, love, compassion, acceptance. The fact is Romney was voted the nominee by conservative voters and he lost because of conservatives who refused to vote for him after they nominated him. Many were Tea Party voters also.

The fact is, we could have had Newt Gingrich as the nominee. While he is not pure as Jesus Christ either (who is? not even Gov. Palin would have the arrogance to claim that one), he had considerable congressional experience, was very successful as Speaker especially w bipartisanship and fiscal responsibility. But far right voters didn’t like that he was not perfect so they split their vote w sanctimonious Santorum who had little congressional experience and certainly did not have the success nor the wits to match Gingrich. But riding a moral high horse was good enough for some. He had no chance of ever winning and should have dropped out. Romney had no congressional experience at all and ran on his success as a good businessman even though his record as a one term Governor had liberal streaks through it. But voters thought since he was the "perfect" husband and father, that was good enough for them.

Frankly, I would rather have someone like Gingrich or Palin who have both faced much adversity and are stronger for it. Both have a record of success. While Gov. Palin has made far less personal mistakes than Gingrich, even she supported him while many Tea Party voters still would not.

So keep blaming Romney for why he lost if it makes it easier for you. But again-conservatives nominated him.

don’t blame it on far right voters. romney used his money and pacs to destroy newt in the primaries.

socon

Romney was always a loser. Electable? What a joke.

mark1955

MITTEN’S was playing his "Assigned" part in this "Theatre", given to him by the Bushies and their bankster masters: Rockefeller/Rotschild,towards a "New World Order,One World Government". The "New World Order,One World Government", is a greater goal to all of these satanically evil elites ( MITTEN’S included ) than the Presidency is. All of MITTEN’S so-called "Life long enthusiasm" to be President,including his previous Presidential run,was nothing but a charade to make us believe that MITTEN’S was sincere in his desire to be President. It was the same playbook McCain had used including his previous run in 2000,to make us believe they were serious about wanting to be President…They weren’t ever! What they were doing was running a "Blocking" motion,to make sure no Conservatives got the nomination,then they were to come to a complete, Dead Stop after they got the nomination and not attack their fellow lefty ( Remember, MITTEN’S was the Father of Obamacare and MITTEN’S Dad was close friends with Saul Alinsky )who was the dem nominee. This is something McCain and then MITTEN’S both did respectively and probably Dole also.They did this for two reason’s. The first being they wanted the dem to win so they could turn the Country radically left because it is the agenda of both parties. That way,more statism could get cemented in and the repub establishment could pretend to fight against,thereby making it seem that when the next Bush became President,their 2 steps to the left,would seem like Conservatism compared to the dems 10 steps to the left when a Clinton or Obama was in office. That in theory would make it easier for them to achieve their NWO in steps without us catching on so quickly…But we have. The second reason is,they were helping to make sure,no one got in Jebbies way,as it understood in the repub party,that the Bush crime family owns the repub nomination. We are dealing with Pure satanic Evil.

Laddie_Blah_Blah

Mitt Romney is over. Forget about him.

Taxes are about to go up on millions of people, the debt ceiling will be reached in short order, and Romney’s kid comes out with an irrelevant, self-serving fairy tale of an excuse for his old man’s campaign.

Who cares?

Even the GOPe has admitted that the Romney campaign was a disaster. Too late to do anything about that. The direction to look is forward, to 2014, and to support those who deserve it, and to 2016, when Jeb Bush will be all the things then that Romney was in 2012.

socon

I couldn’t care less about the Mittster, I just don’t want gullible Republicans to forget his candidacy was a con job from day one.

I will keep reminding them!

DocBarry1

well if his son is correct – then his task was to go after Republicans ruthlessly during the primaries and then act as a lamb during the campaign against obama – another example of a fine and respectable GOPe.- Another one bites the dust with a thug!!!